The India­based Neutrino Observaory (INO) proposed to be set up under the Cardamom Hills (09.9632361°N, 077.2729306°E) in the Western Ghats, a UNESCO heritage site, near the Kerala­Tamil Nadu border with its entry portal in Pottipuram village in Theni district of Tamil Nadu has been opposed by the local communities and the environmentalists. The first INO Risk Audit Report was published in Countercurrents. 2 The main issues raised in the the Risk Audit Group’s articles are:

(a) The construction has the potential to cause hydro­geological calamities which will affect the livelihood of close to 10 million people in six districts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, who depend on the waters stored in reservoirs within the INO neighbourhood.3
(b) Violation of the Federal Principles by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change as this is an inter­state project (Kerala and Tamil Nadu States) and the Government of Kerala has not even been informed about it.
The appeal against the grant of environmental clearance to INO in the Hon’ble National Green Tribunal, Southern Zone Chennai filed by G Sundararajan is coming up for final arguments in early March 2017. Among the grounds for the appeal was the potential impacts on the aquifer and water bodies. About a year after the filing of the appeal in NGT and some four years after the award of prior environmental clearance by the Government of India, the Tata Institute of Fundamenal Research (TIFR) has kindly uploaded on its website the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of INO prepared in December 2010 by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO). With the publication of the DPR it will be easy for Lawyers Sundarrajan and Vetri Selvan to convince the Hon’ble Tribunal about the impending water related disaster if the scientists are allowed to blast the Ghats. This report clearly mentions that tunnelling can disrupt the aquifers, there will be water loss and elaborate arrangements will be made for pumping the water out.

Water Loss in INO’s Detailed Project Report

The INO proponents were aware of the ‘inevitability’ of aquifer damage as these quotes from INO’s Detailed Project Report (DPR)4 prepared in December 2010 by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) reveal:

Related

Related

One Comment

Keeping in view of the vast sections of tribals and other people’s health, the tribunal should advise the scientists to stop the blasts. The people of the region in Kerala and Tamil Nadu should hold mass protests against such hazardous project. The national civil Rights commission and civil rights activists must express solidarity with the people as their fundamental right to life and liberty is under severe threat

Older Archive

Dear Countercurrents family (present and future)— 2017 was a tough year all around. Hot and cold wars continue, the environment further degrades and Trumpism/Putinism/Modiism reigns. One can get depressed- forlorn even- by the array of monsters to fight. Humanity in many ways appears to be stepping backwards, embracing narrow and racist nationalism, further eroding the rights of women, reveling in[Read More…]